water treatment at the individual level is not yet sustainable. Average individual daily consumption remains too high, at approximately 150 liters per person (it is higher in developed countries and lower in developing countries). Clean drinking water is used for garden irrigation and the washing of cars. Each time a faucet is turned on, roughly 40% of the water runs down the drain unused, and the water that flows off is never clean again.

Although water consumption on the individual level remains a marginal environmental topic, it is vitally important when considered on the global level i.e. when multiplied by the earth’s population of more than six billion. In order to foster sustainable development, new value systems must be developed and implemented. Environmental education in early childhood (kindergarten and primary school) is of great importance. Despite the fact that the family plays the most important role in establishing a child's value system, the current generation of parents is insufficiently environmentally educated and therefore does not have the appropriate knowledge to pass on to their children let alone the energy to do so while coping with the chaos of everyday family life. Therefore it is not the family but rather institutions such as kindergarten and schools that are taking the initiative in terms of systematically and professionally imparting environmental knowledge to younger generations.

Definition of the Problem
There are few families that pay systematic attention to rational water management in their homes. This is not entirely the parents' fault as water consumption also depends on the design of products such as faucets, showers, garden hose and sprinkler systems, etc. Some of these products are designed to facilitate the saving of water, others are not. Adults can consciously reduce the quantity of water consumed in everyday life, but for children it is another (less hopeful) story. Most people will eventually have one or two children and these children will use two or three times more water than adults do for the same purpose. In addition the following facts define the problem.

It is not easy to wash a child's hands between the age of seven months and four years old. Children, when washing their hands and faces, leave the faucet open. If you wash your children’s hands it is not much better; because you have to hold the child with one hand and wash him with the other while standing on one leg or, in the best case scenario, sitting with a child on the edge of the bathtub, there is no way to regulate the flow of water. This situation lasts until the child is three or four years old.

2.8 liters of water flow down the drain while washing a one-year-old child's hands and mouth that are sweaty or greasy. For a child of three years this amount is reduced to approximately 2 liters of water; adults use a maximum of 1.5 liters for the same purpose. Children generally wash their hands approximately four to ten times a day depending on their age and therefore use 11 and 20 liters, and in some cases 28 liters of water each and every day. These are numbers that should make you think.

There are more than 15 different types of high chairs for eating but there is not a single chair or other instrument on the market that would help us to wash a child's hands more efficiently and with less waste of water.

Precise analysis reveals that water consumption for this purpose depends on several factors: the child's age, the bathroom plan, the (im)proper design of the bathroom's equipment, how dirty the individual child’s hands are, the level of sensitivity regarding water consumption, education on that issue, etc. Of the six reasons sited above, 50% derive from poor architecture and design. Both of these professions therefore bear a responsibility to develop sustainable solutions for the consumption of water in these basic household activities. Specifically the hypothesis that there is an increasing necessity for design projects that will address the environmental issue of domestic water consumption (and particular in the washing of children's hands) has been proved.

The Design Solution
The children's washstand has been designed in order to help in the washing of children's hands and face. The washstand facilitates rational water management and control over water consumption. The children can wash their hands safely and independently, which also contributes to a positive self-image. The washstand's construction is simple. It is easy to assemble and disassemble, and it is durable. Most products intended for use by children are produced using the PP polymer, which is easy to be cleaned, has soft edges for safety purposes, and is not expensive if marketed on the global scale. SWOT analysis shows that the polymer’s sole weakness is that it derives from a non-renewable resource. In order to satisfy the requirement of sustainability, Zelfo, invented to replace plastics and various metals, represents an excellent alternative choice. Last but not least, the children’s washstand design is one of the strategies of Design for the Environment project. Its main functional and market competitive edge is its rational water management on the individual level. The quantity of water used for every hand washing is ten times lower or even more comparing washing of child’s hands at the washbasin for adults. If the child knows what to do he or she can wash hands properly with 1 dcl of water (proved with the experiment of washing hands in a kindergarten; a tool-the PET bottle with a perforation on the cork, that makes water running gently like a shower). The used water is collected in bottom container which is hidden in a washstand’s leg and possible to be pulled out. With water we can flush the toilet. The clean water container (a shape of daisy) is filled in with water by parents approx. once in two days. Parents can control the water consumption even if the children play with it.

The washstand can be marketed in two different ways: as an entire product, or as a functional upper part i.e. separately as a clean water container in the shape of daisy (photos 5 and 6). A wide range of potential customers can be addressed with this design solution and marketing approach: those with high-end bathrooms and those who lack space in the bathroom. Because the product is designed in accordance with environmental sustainability, it can be marketed to both the active and the passive green consumer. Another important aspect of the product is its ability to help the child build its own value system. The values emerging within the entire contemporary consumer sector must be those of long-term sustainable development on a global level.

Economical viability
Start-up costs for production are estimated to be approximately EUR 30,000.00, the amount needed for tools. We have contacted the Italian company Artsana s.p.a., which globally markets children’s toys, products and accessories under the brand name Chicco. Artsana representatives expressed an interest in the product. If we were to win the Buckminster Fuller Challenge, the money would be invested in further development activities (production, promotion and marketing) together with a partner, i.e. a local producer of plastic goods. When it comes to marketing on the global level, it would make sense to renew business contacts with Artsana.

Barbara Princic cogitodesign.net